Jackson native and Lumen Christi High School graduate to appear on upcoming Jeopardy! episode

Sarah Whitaker said the hardest thing about Jeopardy! is not the questions but buzzing in to answer them.

“It’s being fastest on the trigger,” she said.

Whitaker, a 2002 Lumen Christi High School graduate, competed on Jeopardy! in August. The taped show will air on Oct. 27. Whitaker, who works for a university in New York, said she turned in a “respectable” performance but not well enough to compete another day.

She has always been a trivia person, enjoying a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit now and then, but Jeopardy! was a bit different.

“I really feel like there’s no real way to prepare,” she said.

The audition process involved an online test, live audition — with more tests — and finally the real thing. At the end of August, Whitaker, her mother, Kris Whitaker; grandmother, Alberta Ziepiela; and aunt Patti Fish went to California for the taping and some sightseeing.

And while Whitaker calls the Big Apple home now, she gave a shout-out to her hometown, Jackson, on national television.